


Little Things (Byleth does that make Claude's heart skip a beat)

by feeniecchi



Series: Bylad and the lads [1]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Falling In Love, Golden Deer Route spoilers, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME, M/M, Not Beta Read, Romance, Spoiler for the entire game, mentioned Ashe and Mercedes, sometimes you gotta feed yourself with mlm byleth content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-03
Updated: 2019-08-03
Packaged: 2020-07-29 18:30:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20086798
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/feeniecchi/pseuds/feeniecchi
Summary: “It's fine, it's fine! No need to apologize, really. I truly enjoy seeing you so at ease!Seeing you happy makes me happy in return, so please don't stop with your lovely singing.”He ended the sentence with a wink which earned him a soft smack against the head with a stack of rolled-up papers.Byleth gave him a shy smile followed by a huffed laugh.Claude felt his heart skip a beat.





	Little Things (Byleth does that make Claude's heart skip a beat)

**Author's Note:**

> enjoy my crusty-ass writing.  
sorry for any mistakes its 2AM and im emotional  
everyone thank lauv and annie-marie for this piece, their new song gave me the vibe for this fic

At first, the young teacher had been very hard to read. But _Goddess_ did Claude love a good mystery.  
It took him a while to decipher the stoic young adult but soon he got the hang of it.

Well, all it had taken was some good old observation and tea parties.

Like for example, he had hobbies. Kind of?  
The leader of the Golden Deer had caught him doodling messy drawings on papers while it was self-study hour. While they didn't look professional and looked honest to Goddess childish, they were adorably endearing simply because they had been created by such a blank-faced person.  
Claude has also watched him silently, spending hours fishing and catching one fish after another. The kitchen tended to have so much fish that every student was encouraged to grab seconds.

Raphael is always very pleased on days like those.

His Teach also seemed to adore cats. He liked dogs as well but Claude had seen how he would stand in front of a cat for a good couple of minutes just watching it before finally crouching down to pet it.  
Soon Byleth didn't even need to track down any animals. Cats seemed to return his feelings plenty since they now tended to swarm him in a group of at least three. Which resulted in Byleth sitting on the ground for at least 30 minutes with a sort of happy and pleased aura surrounding him.  
Sometimes Claude would join him but often he felt content just watching his professor be happy.

A smiling Byleth made him happy.

A smiling Byleth was-

_Cute._

Truth to be told, his Teach has only recently started to smile. Or show more emotions besides stoic and slightly less stoic.  
He had a small, almost timid smile that made him look the age he actually was. Just the slight curve of the corner of his lips was enough to lit up the room.  
And it warmed Claude's heart. It felt like he had been part of the reason why. Perhaps his constant hanging around and talking with the professor outside of lectures and about non-school related topics had helped.  
No matter what the cause was for this change, Claude was thankful. He wasn't a religious person but he thanked whatever God that was out there that had made it possible for Byleth to smile.

Once Claude had gotten over the shock of Byleth's beautiful smiling face, he thought it was over with the shockers.  
But of course, he had been wrong. Because Byleth was an enigma. And an enigma always came with new surprises.

Byleth's singing voice was _absolutely _**_beautiful_**.

It started with simple humming during tests when the teacher had nothing better to do but wait for his students to finish. A slow drum of the fingertips evolved into soft humming of a lovely melody that seemed to put everyone at ease.  
Hilda had been over the moon when she heard it for the first time.

(_“He reminds you of your brother?” Claude looked at her slightly puzzled. From what he heard her brother was the exact opposite of their dear professor._

_“Well, kinda,” Hilda said, her pink eyes looking past Claude as though her mind was elsewhere, “My big brother used to hum me to sleep before he was deemed a hero and to busy to do stuff with me, y'know."_

_She turned her head away, trying to hide her face behind her pink bangs with a sad smile._

_"Hearing that reminds me of easier times.”_)

Sparse humming slowly turned into soft singing.  
Claude had made that discovery when he was on his way to enjoy some tea with his favorite teacher and was early.  
A sweet singing voice came from the usual pavilion and it had made him curious. Hidden securely behind some bushes, he had peered over the leaves and spotted his Teach.  
His face was wearing a soft expression as he lowly sang a slow song, a look of ease in his eyes.

Claude's heart had fluttered wildly that day.

  
After a while, the dark-haired student had gathered the courage to asks his professor about his singing.  
What he had expected was Byleth to give him a slightly bothered stare and tell him that it was nothing to worry about.  
What he did not expect was that Byleth's face to be overtaken by a pale flush and a slightly panicked expression.

(_“T-Teach, don't worry about it!”_

_“I-I'm sorry, I don't know what overcame me lately. I-”_

_“It's fine, it's fine! No need to apologize, really. I truly enjoy seeing you so at ease! Seeing you happy makes me happy in return, so please don't stop with your lovely singing.”_

_He ended the sentence with a wink which earned him a soft smack against the head with a stack of rolled-up papers._

_Byleth gave him a shy smile followed by a huffed laugh._

_Claude felt his heart skip a beat_.)

From that moment on Claude was able to spot the professor hum and sing various tunes as he walked around the monastery returning lost items and working on his plants as he whistled them a slight tune to help them grow.

  
Spending his free time with Byleth and coming up with secret schemes, he hadn't even noticed that the night of the ball had arrived.  
Having seen the lost look of his favourite professor's face, Claude easily had concluded that this was his first ball ever.  
Before even thinking twice he grabbed the man's hand and pulled him to the dance floor.

(_“C-Claude, what are you doing?! ” Byleth asked him in a hushed tone, checks slightly flushed as he felt Claude grab his right hand and place the other on his waist._

_“Well, Teach. This is a ball and at a ball, you dance, right? So dance with me?” he asked with a charming grin and a wink that followed right after._

_“I don't know... how to dance.”_

_“It's fine, just follow my lead!”_

_  
Byleth's shoulders slumped just a tad as he sighed and gave in, brushing a few strands out of his face behind his ear. The way he always did when he felt embarrassed._

_He did not lie, he was a _**_terrible_**_ dancer but getting his feet stepped on was totally worth seeing that look of joy that overtook Byleth's face as Claude spun him around._)

~

Byleth's smile in the tower once he spotted Claude took the brunet's breath away.

~

But everything came to a stop once Jeralt was taken away from them way too soon.  
Watching Byleth's pained cries as he held his father in his arms, covered in blood and mud whilst heaven itself seemed to weep at the loss of a father's love.  
The young adult didn't let anyone near his deceased father as he carried him to the Monastery himself.  
Claude felt pain pull on his heartstrings as he watched his beloved Teach glance down at his father's face ever so often only to snap back ahead again.

Silence fell over the Monastery once Jeralt's death has been announced.

Byleth was relieved from most of his duties for a while and Manuela and Hanneman took over some classes.  
The ones he still taught were handled with a stoic expression, misty eyes and clenched fists.  
No gentle smiles, no humming whilst gardening, no cartoon-ish doodles on his graded papers and no singing as tea was being prepared.  
Students couldn't help but notice the weird silence that took over the halls of the place.  
While Byleth was a man of a few words, his humming and singing had become part and pleasant background noises that the students had grown attached to.

Without it... everything felt grey and even lonelier than it already was.

Claude simply couldn't take it anymore. He has tried to talk to the other but he simply told him he was fine and handling things his own way.  
But Claude saw it clear as day. Byleth wasn't fine and he wasn't handling the loss of his father well. He couldn't stand watching Byleth suffer on his own.  
Standing in front of the other man's quarters with some snacks, from Mercedes and Ashe that they have pressed into his hands, Claude was able to pick up the muffled sobs of his teacher.  
Bracing himself, he knocked on the door.

“Teach? It's me, Claude” he started, trying his best to sound lighthearted as always as he heard the sounds behind the door grow silent.

“I, uh, I have some snacks here for you. Mercedes and Ashe made them” he continued and leaned slightly against the wood, his grip on the packaged food tightened.

“I totally understand if you don't want to talk right now but we worry. I'm worried.”

Silence followed after those words left his mouth.  
Waiting for a response, he stood there without making a sound. Just as he was about to leave the snacks in front of Byleth's room and turn around, the door opened slowly and revealed a still sobbing professor that was only dressed in trousers and a dress shirt.  
His eyes were red from crying and his bottom lip quivered as he tried to blink his tears away.  
Claude looked at him slightly bewildered before opening his arms and giving the grieving man a kind smile.

Byleth flew into his arms in the speed of light, snacks nearly knocked out of the other's hand and didn't let go until the sunset.

This time it was Claude that was humming a sweet tune as the other dark-haired male was resting in his arms.

~

5 years later Claude was greeted by the same gorgeous smile that stole his breath away like on the very first day.

He had never given up hope.

~

_Waking up with the sun kissing his face, Claude heard the soft hum of a familiar tune as a hand ran through his brown hair._

_“Hmm-hmm, I'll never get sick of hearing your sweet voice,” Claude mumbled still a tad drunken on sleep as he opened one eye and saw the love of his life, his newlywed **husband**, stare down at him with a soft smile gracing his lips._

_The very same smile that had caused him to fall for the light-haired male._

_“Barely awake and already being a charmer, I see,” Byleth huffed amused as a slight flush took over his cheeks. His other hand brushed some of his minty white bangs behind his ear._

_He was embarrassed._

** _Cute_ ** _, the archbishop's husband couldn't help but think to himself as he pulled his beloved down to press a soft kiss on his lips.  
_

_Claude couldn't believe that someone could be so smitten with another person but here he was, still head over heels with the very same man that saved him from a group of bandits all those years ago._

_He felt Byleth doodle tiny familiar patterns on his exposed arm as he kissed him softly._

_The brunet placed his hand on the other's chest._

_Claude felt Byleth's heart start beating._

**Author's Note:**

> i cried while writing this
> 
> ___________________
> 
> yell at my lonely gay ass on on my [tumblr](https://feeniecchi.tumblr.com) or [twitter](https://twitter.com/Feeniecchi)!!


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